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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



LOCAL HISTORY 



BY 



SHERMAN WILLIAMS, Ped. D. 

Chief School Libraries Division, Regents of the University 
of the State of New York 




SYRACUSE. N. Y. 

C. W. BARDEEN. PUBLISHER 

1915 



Copyright. 1915. by C. W. Bardeeo 



p 



APR 21 1915 

©CU 3976 97 



This address was delivered Dec. 29, 1914 
before the Conference of Academic Princi- 
pals of the State of New York, and is 
published with the author's consent and 
revision. 



LOCAL HISTORY 

A recent writer has said, "Europeans 
regard a general knowledge of the history 
of their country, province and city, as an 
essential factor in even an elementary 
education. Inquiry by the American visi- 
tor will lead to the discovery that almost 
every intelligent peasant boy is at least 
fairly informed about the annals of the 
locality; its hetoes are his own, its glory 
is reflected in the enthusiasm with which 
he recites their deeds to the passing stran- 
ger. But when the immigrant, emerging 



6 LOCAL HISTORY 

from such a background, arrives in America 
he is apt to find that those among whom 
his social lot is cast know little of our 
national history, and naturally nothing 
of the career of the state or city ; his children 
are not even taught local history in the 
public schools. Small wonder if he con- 
cludes that America has no history worth 
the telling, no state or city heroes worthy 
the name; that America "just grew up" 
and is merely a land of opportunity in 
which to make dollars." 

"Can American patriots be made out of 



LOCAL HISTORY 7 

these foreigners in the face of such neglect? 
Can a man be taught to love his country, 
or his state, or city, unless he is taught that 
great deeds have here been done, that here 
high ideals are cherished, that his locality 
has been and is a factor in civilizing the 
New World? Are even our American 
born boys and girls being made into the 
same sort of patriots that they rear abroad? 
Is it not time that as teachers we pay some 
regard to our state and local history; that 
we begin to cultivate a taste for this study 
in the minds of youth, and therein lay 



8 LOCAL HISTORY 

the foundation for that love of locaHty, 
which is the essence of civic patriotism?" 
What do you think of this arraignment? 
Is it justified by facts ? Let us see ! People 
who cross an ocean 3,000 miles wide to make 
permanent homes in this country, people 
who break all home ties to do this, who 
come to this country because they had not 
prospered where they were, or who had 
been treated unjustly in the land of their 
birth, or who were so bound down by laws 
and customs that there was not a hopeful 
outlook for them or for their children. 



LOCAL HISTORY » 

would not, one would think, care over- 
much for the land of their nativity, how- 
ever much they might be attached to the 
friends whom they left behind. But this 
is not the case. They have been so in- 
stilled with patriotism that they are not 
willing to forget the home land, or to put 
the new home above it. So we have Irish- 
Americans, German-Americans, Italian- 
Americans, and so on. In some parts of 
the Canadian northwest the majority of 
the settlers came from the United States, 
but do you hear of their calling themselves 
American-Canadians ? 



10 LOCAL HISTORY 

It may be claimed that this is merely 
sentiment. Is it? A man who is proud 
of his family is likely to be a better member 
of it on that account. One who is proud 
of his race is likely to be a better man for 
that reason. A man who is proud of the 
community in which he lives is likely to 
help make it a better place in which to 
live; a man who is proud of his state or 
country is likely to be a better citizen be- 
cause of such pride. But how can one 
have any intelligent pride in his country 
if he knows nothing of its history, its strug- 



LOCAL HISTORY 11 

gles, its triumphs, its people, and the 
principles for which it has stood? 

The people of New York have been 
specially negligent in this matter — more so 
than any of the other original states, even 
more so than most of the newer ones — yet 
no other state has so proud a history. 
But we allow our children to grow up 
knowing less of the history of New York 
than they do of the history of Massachu- 
setts, or Pennsylvania, or Virginia. They 
have a fuller and better knowledge of the 
history of Greece, or Rome, or Great 



12 LOCAL HISTORY 

Britain than they have of the state in which 
they live. 

And we encourage them in this. It is 
because of the way history is taught in 
our schools that such a condition exists. 
How long shall we continue to act as though 
we considered a knowledge of the history 
of Ireland — a country of fewer than 5 
million inhabitants, 3,000 miles away — 
more important to our children than the 
history of their own state, having more 
than 9 million inhabitants? How long 
shall we continue to take more pains to 



LOCAL HISTORY 13 

instruct the pupils in our schools in regard 
to the history of a small country which 
most of them have never seen and never 
will see, than to make them familiar with 
the history of the great state in which most 
of them will spend their entire lives? 

Why does this condition of affairs exist? 
Is it because we ourselves do not know the 
great part our state has played in history? 
Possibly. Andrew S. Draper once said 
"New York made history and Massachu- 
setts wrote it." 

Permit me to call your attention to some 



14 LOCAL HISTORY 

historical facts that ought to be more than 
a "twice told tale" and will be to some of 
you. I hope that may be the case with 
all of you, but I fear it will not be. Com- 
pared with the history of the other original 
states that of New York is unique. The 
other colonies were settled by those who 
sought political or religious liberty or both. 
The Dutch who settled New York sought 
neither as they had both at home. They 
came solely for business. The settlers of 
Massachusetts sought religious liberty and 
obtained it, but they did not grant it to 



LOCAL HISTORY 15 

others: witness the persecutions of the 
Quakers. Except New York no other 
colony granted perfect religious liberty; 
even the famous toleration act of Mary- 
land would not be thought very tolerant 
now. Save for a short time during the 
administration of the autocratic Stuyve- 
sant, the people of New York enjoyed 
perfect religious liberty. If one was loyal 
to the government, no matter what his 
religious faith, he enjoyed every right and 
privilege that was given to any one. 

We have had dinned into our ears, in 



16 LOCAL HISTORY 

season and out of season, the principles 
and the work of Samuel Adams, and have 
been called upon to become enthusiastic 
over the Boston speech of James Otis, and 
the Richmond oration of Patrick Henry, 
and to revere the principles they promul- 
gated, but how many of us know of the 
resolutions passed by the Colonial Assem- 
bly of New York half a century earlier, 
in which the same principles were enun- 
ciated and with no less force? 

We all know of the Boston Tea Party 
with its picturesque features, but how many 



LOCAL HISTORY 17 

know that there was a New York tea party 
at an earlier date, lacking the picturesque 
features of the Boston affair but not one 
whit behind it so far as devotion to a prin- 
ciple was concerned? 

How much do your pupils know of the 
trial of John Peter Zenger, the principles 
involved, and the far-reaching conse- 
quences? It was perhaps the most im- 
portant single event in all our political 
history, as it reversed the old English law 
of libel, and established the freedom of 
the press. 



18 LOCAL HISTORY 

Let US take a single illustration from 
among the many from which choice might 
be made to show how Massachusetts has 
always exploited and magnified her his- 
tory, which is to her credit, and how New 
York has ignored hers, which is a disgrace 
to us. 

The battle of Bunker Hill has been told 
in story, song and picture till every school- 
boy knows it by heart. It is as real to him 
as though it were actually taking place 
before his very eyes. He sees the British 
troops land. He sees them form in line. 



LOCAL HISTORY 19 

He sees the brilliant uniforms and glisten- 
ing bayonets. He sees the British in per- 
fect alignment approach the American 
lines. He sees the line of flame along the 
rude redoubt, and hears the rattle of mus- 
ketry. He sees scores of the British fall 
and the remainder retreat in confusion. 
He sees all this repeated and, after a brief 
interval, the British form for a third charge 
upon the American position. He sees 
them throw aside all that would impede 
their movements, and with the bull-dog 
courage characteristic of the British soldiers 



20 LOCAL HISTORY 

again ascend the slope. They were not to 
be again received with a wasting discharge 
of musketry, as the Americans had ex- 
hausted their ammunition and were driven 
from the field, retreating slowly and sullen- 
ly, fighting as they went, with clubbed mus- 
kets or whatever came to hand, but in vain. 
All this is as clear to him as though it were 
actually taking place before his eyes, and 
this is well. 

But the battle of Bunker Hill was not 
followed by any momentous consequences. 
It did not change history. If the battle 



LOCAL HISTORY 21 

had never been fought, or if it had been 
fought and the patriots had fled like fright- 
ened sheep at the first charge of the British, 
the result would have been the same. 
There would still have been a great patriot 
army gathered about Boston. The British 
would still have been compelled to abandon 
the city. It is not claimed that the battle 
of Bunker Hill was of no account. Far 
from it. It did much to cheer and en- 
courage the patriots. It showed them that 
it was possible for untrained, undisciplined, 
and poorly equipped men to withstand a 



22 LOCAL HISTORY 

charge of British regulars; but the battle 
did not change history nor was it followed 
by any momentous consequences. 

The next year there was a battle fought 
in the state of New York that was followed 
by momentous consequences, that did 
change history. It was the most stub- 
bornly contested and the bloodiest battle 
in that great struggle. I allude, of course, 
to the battle of Oriskany, which sealed the 
fate of Burgoyne and led to the French 
alliance. But does every schoolboy know 
that by heart? Has he had that in story, 



LOCAL HISTORY 23 

song and picture? Does he see that as 
though it were actually taking place before 
his eyes? NO! Some of our school text- 
books on American history do not even 
mention it, and very few of them recognize 
its importance. 

New York is rich in history. She is an 
empire in herself with the history of an 
empire. Her important history does not 
receive adequate treatment in any general 
school history of our country, and can not. 
Much of the important part of the history 
of our state is not mentioned or alluded 



24 LOCAL HISTORY 

to in our school histories. If our children 
are to know the history of our state as they 
should, it must be taken up as an indepen- 
dent study, and it is well worth a year of 
study. Pardon me if in the attempt to 
show why the history of New York should 
be given more attention I weary you with 
a repetition of much that you know well. 
New York is geographically the most 
important state in the Union. It was fore- 
ordained that she should be great. That 
matter was settled when the continent was 
formed. 



LOCAL HISTORY 25 

The Hudson river flows through the only 
low-lying, wide-open gap in the whole 
Appalachian mountain system from the 
St. Lawrence river on the north to the 
Gulf of Mexico on the south. Up as far 
as the Highlands, the Hudson is really an 
arm of the sea. The tide rises and falls 
at Troy, so that it is practically a dead 
level for 150 miles north of New York. 

From Albany to the West for more than 
100 miles, the Mohawk valley is a very easy 
grade, and from that point to Lake Erie 
the route is also an easy one. The physi- 



26 LOCAL HISTORY 

cal geography of the country made it cer- 
tain that the West would find an outlet 
to the sea through central New York. 

Lakes George and Champlain furnish 
water connection between the Hudson and 
the St. Lawrence, with the exception of a 
short distance. Except for a short carry 
between Fort Edward and Whitehall, there 
is an all water route from New York to 
Montreal. This controls most of the trade 
between Canada and the eastern part of 
the United States. 

Another northern route is up the Mo- 



LOCAL HISTORY 27 

hawk, across to Oneida lake, and down 
the Oswego river to Lake Ontario. 

Through the Wallkill and Rondout 
rivers and the Esopus creek, the head- 
waters of the Delaware and the eastern 
branches of the Susquehanna are easily 
reached, opening a way to a vast stretch 
of country. The headwaters of the east- 
ern branches of the Susquehanna may also 
be reached with a short carry by the way of 
the Mohawk river and the Schoharie creek. 

By going up the Genesee river, one may 
by short carries reach the headwaters of 



28 LOCAL HISTORY 

the western branches of the Susquehanna 
and so reach a large portion of the southern 
part of the state or, turning to the south, 
reach the headwaters of the Alleghenny 
and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. 

The rivers that have their source in cen- 
tral New York open the way to an enor- 
mous area of country. This fact made 
the Iroquois confederacy powerful. It 
also made New York of great strategic 
importance during the Revolution. It 
gives us the great Central railroad with 
its numerous connections north and south. 



LOCAL HISTORY 29 

It gives us the Erie canal and, through 
that, the commercial supremacy of the 
country. 

Physical geography has made New York 
the greatest manufacturing state in the 
Union. It has made her rich and popu- 
lous. It has made her in all respects fit 
to be called the Empire state. A great 
state produces great men, and great men 
help to make a great state. Our pupils 
ought to know something of the men and 
women who have written their names large 
in the history of the state and the nation. 



30 LOCAL HISTORY 

Bear with me as I call your attention to a 
few of these and the things that they did. 
To Alexander Hamilton, an adopted 
son of New York, we owe the fact that we 
have a government worthy of the name. 
The convention at Philadelphia formed a 
constitution and submitted it to the various 
states for approval. The approval of New 
York was absolutely necessary to success. 
While the necessary number of states 
might have approved the constitution 
without New York, it would not become 
operative in the case of any state that did 



LOCAL HISTORY 31 

not adopt it, and if New York alone failed 
we should have a country made up of two 
sections separated by a foreign state. 

The New York convention met at Pough- 
keepsie. Nearly two-thirds of the dele- 
gates were opposed to the adoption of the 
Federal constitution, and were pledged to 
vote against it. Among the number so 
opposed was George Clinton, the governor 
of the state and a very strong man, who 
was chosen chairman of the convention, 
and Melancthon Smith, one of the greatest 
lawyers of his time. This was a discourag- 



32 LOCAL HISTORY 

ing outlook, but Hamilton was not dis- 
mayed, and his great ability and untiring 
labors finally convinced the members of 
the convention that the welfare of New 
York, as well as the welfare of the nation, 
demanded the adoption of the Federal 
constitution. 

While one son of New York gave us a 
form of government another, Robert Liv- 
ingston, gave us a country to govern. 
But for him the United States would have 
consisted of a narrow strip of land along 
the Atlantic coast. The fact that the vast 



LOCAL HISTORY ' 33 

Mississippi valley and land to the west 
of that is ours is due to the courage and 
persistence of Livingston. This story 
would require many pages for its fair pre- 
sentation and I can only allude to it here. 

Another great acquisition of territory, 
the value of which we are just beginning 
to see dimly — the purchase of Alaska — 
was solely the work of William H. Seward. 

The Erie canal, with its many enlarge- 
ments and extensions, changed and to a 
great extent made the history of the state 
and the great middle west. It was solely 



34 LOCAL HISTORY 

the work of New York, and its successful 
accomplishment was chiefly due to the 
untiring efforts of DeWitt Clinton. How 
much do our pupils know of Hamilton, 
Livingston, Seward, and Clinton so far as 
their relation to the history of New York 
is concerned? 

Our children are led to speculate as to 
who were the earliest inhabitants of Greece. 
How much do they know of the Indians of 
New^ York? Yet the Iroquois played a 
most important part in the history of our 
state and of the nation. Had the Iroquois 



LOCAL HISTORY 35 

taken the side of the French, it is probable 
that New England, New York, and the 
states along the Great Lakes would be 
French in population, laws, and customs, 
if not in government, as is the province of 
Quebec today. 

Our pupils know much of the lives of 
Benjamin Franklin, of Samuel Adams, of 
Patrick Henry, and many other prominent 
men of the other states, but how much do 
they know of Sir William Johnson, who 
rendered incalculable service through his 
control of the Iroquois? What do they 



36 LOCAL HISTORY 

know of John Jay, the author of the first 
constitution of the state of New York, 
one of the commissioners to negotiate a 
peace with Great Britain, the first chief 
justice of the state of New York, the first 
chief justice of the United States, the presi- 
dent of the first society for the abohtion 
of slavery, governor of the state of New 
York, delegate to the Continental Con- 
gress, president of Congress, secretary of 
foreign affairs, minister to Spain and to 
Great Britain — a man who had an im- 
portant part in nearly every great move- 



LOCAL HISTORY 37 

merit of his time? How much do they 
know of a score of other men of New York 
who were among the foremost men of the 
nation ? 

What are our children taught of the part 
taken by the men of New York in the great 
struggle for supremacy on this continent? 
Surely, not a matter of little moment and 
equally surely a matter in which New York 
distinguished herself. Of this struggle 
Parkman says, "It was feudalism against 
democracy; popery against protestantism; 
the sword against the plowshare; the issue 



38 LOCAL HISTORY 

was long in doubt because it was union 
confronting division; energy confronting 
apathy; military centralization opposed 
to industrial democrary." It was really 
a struggle between greatly differing forms 
of civilization, and the outcome was to 
affect greatly the history of the world. 
Because of its physical geography, New 
York had to be the leading figure in that 
great struggle ; yet our children know it as a 
series of French and Indian wars, without 
a glimmering of the part our state took 
in it, and with but little comprehension of 
what it all meant. 



LOCAL HISTORY 39 

How many know that for a long time 
Albany was one of the most important 
colonial centres and, for a time, was prac- 
tically the colonial capital? Here were 
held numerous meetings for making trea- 
ties with the Indians that affected nearly 
every one of the colonies, and here came 
representatives from every colony and from 
every Indian tribe of consequence. How 
many know that it was at Albany, at a 
meeting of a Congress held in 1754, that 
the first steps were taken toward the union 
of the colonies? How many realize that 



40 LOCAL HISTORY 

it was at Albany that every continental 
and British army gathered for movements 
against Montreal, Crown Point, or Ticon- 
deroga? 

Our pupils are painfully ignorant of the 
part taken in the Revolution by the people 
of New York. Until recently New York 
has received little credit compared with 
what she deserved. It has been written 
again and again that New York was a Tory 
colony and did not furnish her quota of 
troops, yet the records show that she fur- 
nished 51,979 men, far more in proportion 



LOCAL HISTORY 41 

to her population than were furnished by 
any other colony. Likewise, she furnished 
more money in proportion to her wealth 
than did any other colony. 

She suffered from the War of the Revolu- 
tion far beyond any other state. Massa- 
chusetts hardly saw a foe after the first 
year of the struggle, but from the first to 
the last, even for two years after Yorktown 
when hostilities ceased elsewhere, New 
York was a constant scene of warfare. 
The first, the last, the bloodiest, and the 
decisive battles of the Revolution were all 



42 LOCAL HISTORY 

fought on the soil of New York. All told, 
2 1 battles were fought in New York during 
the struggle for independence. 

What acquaintance have the children in 
our schools with these facts? What op- 
portunities are given them while in school 
to get this information? New York suf- 
fered from the Border wars as did no other 
colony. No pen can picture adequately 
the horrors of the New York frontier during 
the Revolution. 

We know so little of our history that we 
are disposed to apologize for the lack of 



LOCAL HISTORY 43 

enterprise and interest in early education 
on the part of New York, and the people 
of other states, especially New England, 
assume a kind of patronizing air that the 
facts warrant as little as they do our apolo- 
getic attitude. 

This is not a time to discuss this matter, 
or to say more than that New York has a 
proud history in educational matters, and 
that pride finds its roots in the attitude 
of the early Dutch settlers of our State. 
It is true that education languished under 
English colonial rule, and during the few 



44 LOCAL HISTORY 

years immediately after the close of the 
Revolution, because of the utter poverty 
of our people, a degree of poverty that it is 
now very difficult to comprehend. It is 
true that Massachusetts was earlier in the 
field in the matter of higher education, 
that is, the education of those who were 
to enter the professions. But in the matter 
of the education of the masses Massachu- 
setts was and always has been behind New 
York, always excepting the time of the 
English rule. 

I have briefly, very briefly of necessity, 



LOCAL HISTORY 45 

tried to impress upon you the important 
part that New York has taken in history. 
I have tried to convince you that it has 
been so important in itself, and that it 
concerns us so greatly, that it is quite as 
worthy of extended study as any history 
that could be taught to our children; that 
it would be more interesting, and tend 
more strongly toward the making of good 
citizens than would the study of the history 
of Greece or of Ireland. 

Who can be expected to respect our his- 
tory if we ourselves ignore it? Who will 



46 LOCAL HISTORY 

think it of importance if we act as though 
it were not worthy of study ? How can we 
expect our boys and girls to grow to be 
men and women who are proud of their 
state, and the better because of that pride, 
when we ourselves manifest no interest in 
it? If otir children do grow up proud of 
the state in which they were born, and in 
which they are to live, it will not be because 
of what they have been taught in our 
schools but in spite of the lack of such 
instruction. Is our state one to be proud 
of? Is her story worth the telling? Has 



LOCAL HISTORY 47 

she stood for worthy ideals? Have her 
accomplishments been worthy of notice? 
Can we point with pride to her history, or 
do we think it one of which the less said 
the better? Let our action correspond 
with our belief. 



